Virus thread, the political one.

[Matthew Strongin]

The US surpassed it's single day high of new cases today. Why is most everything open for business? We should still be on lockdown.

[j44ke]

The US surpassed it's single day high of new cases today. Why is most everything open for business? We should still be on lockdown.

I am going to guess that early in NYC's infection ramp up there were higher single day totals, but there was comparatively very little testing going on outside of hospitalized individuals.

Splitting hairs on the head of bad news either way.

[Matthew Strongin]

I am going to guess that early in NYC's infection ramp up there were higher single day totals, but there was comparatively very little testing going on outside of hospitalized individuals.

Splitting hairs on the head of bad news either way.

That may be, but here in Florida it's more cases per test, not just more testing.

From The Miami Herald, here's their COVID19 tracking and data page: Access Denied

I think that's free and not behind their paywall (plug for local journalism, though, for me it's some of the best money I spend). Anyway, here's a screenshot of a valuable chart that shows not the number of cases, but the daily rate of positive test results. This is the one that terrifies me. We're testing more AND a higher percentage of those that are getting tested are positive.

Postive Test Result.png

[j44ke]

Yeah that's badder news.

[Wisco]

The abdication of leadership coming from the White House is the single greatest threat to America. My friends in Florida, Arizona and Texas are very close to seeing their hospital systems overwhelmed. And stop it with the "second wave" crap... we never established a return to low levels so this is still the "first wave". Our collective willful ignorance and lack of societal discipline will be our undoing.

We're all on our own. Wash your hands, wear a mask and do whatever you can to keep you and your loved ones safe.

[Mark Kelly]

And stop it with the "second wave" crap... we never established a return to low levels so this is still the "first wave". Our collective willful ignorance and lack of societal discipline will be our undoing.

Second wave: A phenomenon of infections that can develop during a pandemic. The disease infects one group of people first. Infections appear to decrease. And then, infections increase in a different part of the population, resulting in a second wave of infections.

From Medterms Dictionary of Medical Terminology.

IMO Florida at least fits that definition and the current rate of new infections there is now increasing exponentially with a doubling period of tens days or so. If that keeps up it will be at New York numbers in a couple of weeks. This was predicted by many based on the actions of its governor.

What degree of demonstrated incompetence do you need to remove a governor from office? Is he up for election in November?

[thollandpe]

Postive Test Result.png

Oh Florida.

What degree of demonstrated incompetence do you need to remove a governor from office? Is he up for election in November?

This governor was specifically praised during one of the WHite House coronavirus press briefings (remember the briefings?) for his “decisive” actions. It’s beyond incompetence, it’s beyond negligence.

[htwoopup]

Well since we Americans can't protect ourselves from ourselves and we have politicians in office who are hellbent on being in denial of the problem rather than admitting they are over their heads on finding a solution...it is good to know that at least Micky Mouse is the adult in the room...

Disneyland Postpones Reopening of Theme Park, Resort – Variety

[mjbabcock]

Oh Florida.



This governor was specifically praised during one of the WHite House coronavirus press briefings (remember the briefings?) for his “decisive” actions. It’s beyond incompetence, it’s beyond negligence.

This is not negligence, this is a twisted utilitarian decision that weighed life against prosperity. Don’t think for a second these assholes didn’t know hundreds of thousands of citizens would die.

[Mark Kelly]

I have a question for those better versed in US political theory than I.

We all know Trump lies and he seems to get away with it.

In the Westminster system the prime minister is answerable to parliament: he and all his ministers can be questioned on their statements (there are sessions called "Question Time" for this purpose) and while they can (and often will) obfuscate and dodge they cannot lie: a minister found to have mislead parliament will resign or be forced to do so.

Does any such mechanism exist in the US system?

[vertical_doug]

I have a question for those better versed in US political theory than I.

We all know Trump lies and he seems to get away with it.

In the Westminster system the prime minister is answerable to parliament: he and all his ministers can be questioned on their statements (there are sessions called "Question Time" for this purpose) and while they can (and often will) obfuscate and dodge they cannot lie: a minister found to have mislead parliament will resign or be forced to do so.

Does any such mechanism exist in the US system?

Yes, but it was always based on members of Congress having higher principles. They have failed us. The US AG, Bill Barr, also could use the justice department to hold a corrupt president to account, but Barr's view of an imperial Presidency is unprecedented. They have a view of 'the ends' and to them, any means is completely justifiable. The corruption is complete at the Evangelical level where Trump's behavior should the the anti-thesis to Christian teachings, but they somehow twist into God works in mysterious ways to justify the unjustifiable. Ultimately, the mechanism is based on a simple concept of right and wrong which no longer carries importance to the Republicans.



Opinion: Trump Must Be Removed. So Must His Congressional Enablers.
2020-06-02 00:10:13.359 GMT

With Trump, there is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume the worst is yet
to come.

(Washington Post) -- This unraveling presidency began with the
Crybaby-in-Chief banging his spoon on his highchair tray to protest a
photograph — a photograph — showing that his inauguration crowd the day before
had been smaller than the one four years previous. Since then, this weak
person's idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own
gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath has
proven that the phrase malignant buffoon is not an oxymoron.

Presidents, exploiting modern communications technologies and abetted today by
journalists preening as the "resistance" — like members of the French
Resistance 1940-1944, minus the bravery — can set the tone of American
society, which is regrettably soft wax on which presidents leave their marks.
The president's provocations — his coarsening of public discourse that lowers
the threshold for acting out by people as mentally crippled as he — do not
excuse the violent few. They must be punished. He must be removed.

Social causation is difficult to demonstrate, particularly between one
person's words and other persons' deeds. However: The person voters hired in
2016 to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed" stood on July 28,
2017, in front of uniformed police and urged them "please don't be too nice"
when handling suspected offenders. His hope was fulfilled for 8 minutes and 46
seconds on Minneapolis pavement.

What Daniel Patrick Moynihan termed "defining deviancy down" now defines
American politics. In 2016, voters were presented an unprecedentedly
unpalatable choice: Never had both major parties offered nominees with higher
disapproval than approval numbers. Voters chose what they wagered would be the
lesser blight. Now, however, they have watched him govern for 40 months and
more than 40 percent — slightly less than the percentage that voted for him —
approve of his sordid conduct.

Presidents seeking reelection bask in chants of "Four more years!" This year,
however, most Americans — perhaps because they are, as the president
predicted, weary from all the winning — might flinch: Four more years of this
? The taste of ashes, metaphorical and now literal, dampens enthusiasm.

The nation's downward spiral into acrimony and sporadic anarchy has had many
causes much larger than the small man who is the great exacerbator of them.
Most of the causes predate his presidency, and most will survive its January
terminus. The measures necessary for restoration of national equilibrium are
many and will be protracted far beyond his removal. One such measure must be
the removal of those in Congress who, unlike the sycophantic mediocrities who
cosset him in the White House, will not disappear "magically," as Eric Trump
said the coronavirus would. Voters must dispatch his congressional enablers,
especially the senators who still gambol around his ankles with a canine
hunger for petting.

In life's unforgiving arithmetic, we are the sum of our choices. Congressional
Republicans have made theirs for more than 1,200 days. We cannot know all the
measures necessary to restore the nation's domestic health and international
standing, but we know the first step: Senate Republicans must be routed, as
condign punishment for their Vichyite collaboration, leaving the Republican
remnant to wonder: Was it sensible to sacrifice dignity, such as it ever was,
and to shed principles, if convictions so easily jettisoned could be dignified
as principles, for . . . what? Praying people should pray, and all others
should hope: May I never crave anything as much as these people crave
membership in the world's most risible deliberative body.

A political party's primary function is to bestow its imprimatur on
candidates, thereby proclaiming: This is who we are. In 2016, the Republican
Party gave its principal nomination to a vulgarian and then toiled to elect
him. And to stock Congress with invertebrates whose unswerving abjectness has
enabled his institutional vandalism, who have voiced no serious objections to
his Niagara of lies, and whom T.S. Eliot anticipated:

We are the hollow men . . .

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

or rats' feet over broken glass . . .

Those who think our unhinged president's recent mania about a murder two
decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the
lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the
worst is yet to come. Which implicates national security: Abroad,
anti-Americanism sleeps lightly when it sleeps at all, and it is wide-awake as
decent people judge our nation's health by the character of those to whom
power is entrusted. Watching, too, are indecent people in Beijing and Moscow.

georgewill@washpost.com

[vertical_doug]

Well since we Americans can't protect ourselves from ourselves and we have politicians in office who are hellbent on being in denial of the problem rather than admitting they are over their heads on finding a solution...it is good to know that at least Micky Mouse is the adult in the room...

Disneyland Postpones Reopening of Theme Park, Resort – Variety

Disney employees sent a petition to the Governor asking him to postpone Disney's re-opening. Disney was facing full fledged revolt of Park and Hotel cast members.

I like South Park's Evil Mickey.

[guido]

Opinion | Trump Is Feeding America’s Coronavirus Nightmare - The New York Times

"President Trump says the coronavirus is “fading away” and pats himself on the back for “a great job on CoronaVirus” that saved “millions of U.S. lives.”

“It’s going away,” Trump said Tuesday at a packed megachurch in Phoenix where few people wore masks.

That’s what delusion sounds like. We need a Churchill to lead our nation against a deadly challenge; instead, we have a president who helps an enemy virus infiltrate our churches and homes. Churchill and Roosevelt worked to deceive the enemy; Trump is trying to deceive us.

A few glimpses of the challenge:

Texas, California, Arizona and four other states reported record numbers of cases this week.

Some 27 states, by the count of the Times tracker, are reporting increasing numbers of new cases. Ten states and Washington, D.C., are reporting declining numbers, with the rest holding steady.

Arizona, where Trump held his rally, now has the highest number of new cases per day per million population, and the highest share of positive test results.

Black Lives Matter protests do not seem to have spread the virus much, perhaps because they were held outside and many participants wore masks. The virus is spreading most quickly in Trump Country in the South and Southwest and in both red and blue states in the West."

[vertical_doug]

Opinion | Trump Is Feeding America’s Coronavirus Nightmare - The New York Times

"President Trump says the coronavirus is “fading away” and pats himself on the back for “a great job on CoronaVirus” that saved “millions of U.S. lives.”

“It’s going away,” Trump said Tuesday at a packed megachurch in Phoenix where few people wore masks.

That’s what delusion sounds like. We need a Churchill to lead our nation against a deadly challenge; instead, we have a president who helps an enemy virus infiltrate our churches and homes. Churchill and Roosevelt worked to deceive the enemy; Trump is trying to deceive us.

I take issue with this since we don't need a Churchill or Roosevelt. It's not some complex thinking enemy , it's a simple virus which has one totally predictable goal. It's a pretty simple thing to contain. You just need leadership for people to change behavior.

Trump wants to pretend this is some great invincible monster and he is some great general fighting this inhuman evil. I find the whole thing laughable.

Wash your hands, wear a face mask, avoid crowds.... don't be an idiot.... oh, that last part is hard for a man who is a clown.

(on a side note, there is a heat wave in the UK. Go online and look at the crowds on the beaches.. Unlike the US, the southern beaches will be populated by Londoners coming down on trains to the coast. )

[guido]

I take issue with this since we don't need a Churchill or Roosevelt. It's not some complex thinking enemy , it's a simple virus which has one totally predictable goal. It's a pretty simple thing to contain. You just need leadership for people to change behavior.

Trump wants to pretend this is some great invincible monster and he is some great general fighting this inhuman evil. I find the whole thing laughable.

Wash your hands, wear a face mask, avoid crowds.... don't be an idiot.... oh, that last part is hard for a man who is a clown.

(on a side note, there is a heat wave in the UK. Go online and look at the crowds on the beaches.. Unlike the US, the southern beaches will be populated by Londoners coming down on trains to the coast. )

The Churhillian determination and resolve are the attributes we need. No complex strategy true, still the inpatient, uncommitted response government at the federal and many state levels are f***ing it up badly causing such extensive damage to lives and treasure.

[guido]

How the Virus Won - The New York Times

How it happened in pictures...

[Sbti]

Andrew Cuomo: "Do you like apples?"

Ron DeSantis: "Yes"

Andrew Cuomo: "Well, our cases are down and we're doing a three state self quarantine order for out of staters. How do you like them apples?"

[Chik]

Trump might still win, come November.
Key West Locals Public Group | Facebook

[theflashunc]

It didn't have to be like this. I can't imagine what this is going to be like come Fall when we get both this and flu season hitting at the same time.

[vertical_doug]

Don't throw it all away! | Daily Mail Online